So after about 12 hours of continuous work, I've managed to get about half of the "lobby" window in place and mostly functional. Though I still have a TON of things to add.

Now you can play click the "Multiplayer" button from the main menu...then use the "Server Finder" (mentioned in the last journal entry) to find a server to connect to. Once you connect
to a server you'll be presented with this window...the "Lobby".

This is a work in progress..about 50% complete...just a basic layout of the lobby.


I've added a fully functional chat system, server notifications, message of the day, server names and some other cool features to the game already.

I'm about to add a vote-kick system into the game. Every player will have a "kick button" next to their icon. If OVER 50% of the players in the server click a players kick button, they'll get booted out of the server. Very democratic I must say.

I've never designed a multiplayer game before...I was suprised at how many little things you need to worry about to get a completly stable chat/lobby system going. I'm pretty sure there's no way to crash the chat system now, I spent a few hours testing/fine tuning everything. The network library that I'm using (RakNet) is very stable, and easy to work with. I'd recommend it to anyone trying to quickly implement multiplayer into their game.

I'm testing all of this by running the deticated server on my laptop, while running the client on my main computer, and connecting over the LAN. I've also tested it on the internet, I had one of my friends accross town download and run the deticated server...everything work just as planned. I have 3 computers on my LAN that can run the game, so I've got a pretty solid test area right now. I'm very happy with the way things are progressing.

I'm hoping to be racing around town against my roommate sometime in the next 2 days, and I expect to have the Lobby window filled out by tommorow. :-D

- Dan